In typical SYD* fashion, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to look at mushrooms the same way ever again. With their long shafts and rather bulbous top, it never occurred to me just how good of good of an analog they make for a certain male body part. Maybe it’s because the mushrooms in my part of the world are proportioned a bit differently but I’m pretty sure that I’m pretty much obligated to make some sort of stupid joke whenever I see a shitake mushroom from now on.

Aria vs The World

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I think Aria is trying to play us all with the dense act of hers. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say she’s a genius, I think she’s pretty adept at reading the mood and relishes every time she gets to retort with a dirty remark; especially when she knows it’s completely inappropriate for the situation. And if there ever was an episode where she was going with her own flow, it was this week’s. I mean, come on! When you go so far that you alienate Shino you’ve gone too far.

Straightmen Tsuda and Suzu

After nearly two seasons and a ton of OVAs, it feels like Tsuda and Suzu have all but given up on being the straightmen. While I wouldn’t say they’ve given up hope, it definitely feels like they’re getting tired of doing it all the time. Compared to how they were back during the first season, its clear that they aren’t as cheery as they used to be. Throw in how they’ve been constantly using their monotone voices when they are tsukkomi-ing, and I think it paints a clear picture just how close they are to hitting their limit.

But I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing! It gives the series this feel that we’ve finally reached full circle and in turn would normally mean things would start to change. While I doubt we’ll actually get that far, I think it’d be cool to get a short peek into what happens once Aria and Shino graduate and Tsuda and Suzu are left on their own.

Looking Ahead

We’re down to the home stretch guys! With the end in sight and all the obligatory episodes covered (beach, school festival, sports, performance, idol, etc), I really have no idea what’s left for us. But if you compare how the show started to now, it seems like GoHands has figured out the winning combination of jokes to story ratio so I feel pretty confident we’ll get something decent at worst. Hopefully though, we’ll get something awesome!

Fun episode – especially the 2nd half Halloween festival. LOL’d at Toki’s minimal effort costume – so like her. Same goes for Nene and her costume. Very clever!

The season’s almost over, but I’m still impressed with the visual quality. The show consistently looks great IMO. As Takaii said, GoHands has found the right formula for this show. I also agree with Takaii in that while I don’t know what’s in store for the season end, I’m confident it will be entertaining.

I was in stitches when Suda accidentally said something semi-perverted (about wearing thongs), especially because he immediately realized his mistake. And so many ship teases with Suzu, gah! Tsundere Mitsuba was funny as well.

I’ll never get tired of Hata and her complete lack of respect for personal space either. Satomi Arai really nails her trollish, deadpan voice too.

Loved the Suzu/bell(suzu) bits, as well as Tsundere Mitsuba.
Unfortunately for Suzu, she has a rather distinctive aspect that makes her easy to identify, even if she covers her whole head. Tsuda had to hold his tongue to make sure she wouldn’t feel sad.
And how the heck do you make your face disappear like that judo club girl?